In the spirit of scientific study

[bladespark]

I want to find out something,


Let's say you have some money. Let's say that right at that moment you don't actually have any needs. Bills are paid, car is running fine, computer is cutting edge and working like a dream, you have all the games you really must have, there's money in your savings account, and everything is peachy, and you have say... $50 left over. You can buy anything you want with it, but you feel like maybe getting something to sit on your desk, a desk mascot.

Now, take a look at these images:







Let's assume they're all $50. (They're not, but for the sake of this they're close enough to, and I couldn't be bothered to find appropriate other options in the correct price range.) Assume they're all equally easy to get, you can just order them on line, and the shipping is more or less the same.

[Poll #937474]

Feel free to expand upon your choice in the comments.

Comments

[wulfsbane.livejournal.com]

Honestly, if I had extra money?

I'd save it. Like I have been doing ;)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, the purpose of this is to prove something to the maker of Poads, but I wanted to see if I was actually right about them and the level of their appeal before trying to take up my cause. It's not to prove anything about spending vs. savings.

[wulfsbane.livejournal.com]

aaah.

Well, here's the thing.

Bounty hunters? You can get those on Amazon or eBay or countless other places.
Shiny dragons? you can sometimes get those at GAS STATIONS. (especially crystal ones)
awesomely painted lump thingies? now there's something... um. awesome. o.o;; and painted!

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Shiny dragons like /that/ one do not come at gas stations. But obviously only somebody who actually cares about shiny dragons would know that. (That guy is actually worth about $130, and is found in only a very few places.)

[wulfsbane.livejournal.com]

I always loved that part of road trips to Kansas. Stop at a Flying J, look at the glass display of crystal sculpture thingies xD I could imagine being the guy that set those up, making a little battle scene.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was obsessed with those things when I was younger. If I could have afforded them I'd have owned dozens, but I just had a couple.

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Ever been to that rest stop in Iowa? The "biggest rest stop in the world?" They have swords and dragons and all kinds of crazy stuff.

[chohakkai.livejournal.com]

Are the poads M. Peña work, then? I love that stuff! (Too damn cute, too.)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

They are by Melody, but they're not Windstone Editions. Yet. She made them as a personal project, and has never sold any.

[chohakkai.livejournal.com]

You know her? I WANT A POAD. She should sell them!

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I've met her a couple of times now. She lives not too far from me sometimes, though she has two places, one near the factory and one up here. And I wish she would sell poads! Maybe someday...

[chohakkai.livejournal.com]

Definitely tell her there are people out there that want a poad. I've been a fan of her work for ages, and I would definitely love a poad myself. I squealed when I saw them. XD

[unspeakablevorn.livejournal.com]

Poads are cute. But I would rather have my Rollie Fingers bobblehead.

Vorn

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Why didn't you check the option for none of the above then? *puzzled*

[wulfsbane.livejournal.com]

'cause he's Vorn. o.o;;

[unspeakablevorn.livejournal.com]

...because I didn't see the poll.

Vorn

[jmfoxfire.livejournal.com]

i like to get The dragon if i had the money

[jordanis.livejournal.com]

I am completely uninterested in just about everything windstone puts out. But the Poad! I want a Poad for my desk.

[graydown.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's hard. Bounty hunters are right out: too many little parts and pieces, and they'd have to be kept in their original package packed in cotton wool to keep their value.

The dragon is so tempting. Very shiny, and a dragon! But he's big and heavy and fragile. Besides, he's a dragon... there are others out there like him, in other colors.

Thus, the poad. I don't have anything even remotely poadlike, and neither does anyone else. It's small, and cute, and strange. And I've just talked myself into wanting one for my own sake.

Poooooad. :D

[heffboom-konijn.livejournal.com]

id go with The Poads cause so sooooo cute XD!!

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

The poad. The one with the shiny blue stripes specifically if I had a choice. *plastering self aginst screen and trying to reach through*

There would be more about how much I want one if I hadn't realized how pathetically desperate I sounded about it.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You and almost every single user on the Windstone forums. There have been mad raids on the factory planned, and crazy plots to stuff poads down cleavage, and similar. I don't have enough cleavage or I might have managed to swipe one when I saw one in person a few weeks ago. *grins*

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Now there's an idea. :ninja:

Seriously, though, if they go into production I will be buying one for me and one for Lii for certain and probably others for gifts. Maybe multiple colors.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I must have an assortment of poads, one is insufficient. I really hope Melody decides to make them as regular production pieces. Right now it seems she doesn't want to, but she's said part of that is she just doesn't think people will like them!

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

@.@ I desperately hope she does. XD

[malakim2099.livejournal.com]

DRAGON!

DRAGONDRAGONDRAGON!

Though the Poads look pretty cool... I gotta have my priorities!

[crystallinegirl.livejournal.com]

Dude, if a poad was a real animal I'd SO have a pet. They look like something I could hold in my palm and just pet and adore. Absolutely adorable, but with that beak and those eyes, they've got personality and aren't just sickeningly cute. WANT ONE!

[silveradept]

The poads don't hold any appeal to me. Maybe if I saw them without their backs turned to me, I might be more interested in them, but my desk mascots are likely to be the geeky things, or, if I could get it, the shinydragon.

[wyngaed.livejournal.com]

Those poads are so freaking odd...

I WANT ONE.

[lin-chan.livejournal.com]

The poad is cool. Anything that vaguely resembles a jelly bean is going places. I wouldn't spend $50 on it though.

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Anything that vaguely resembles a jelly bean is going places.
- Lin

HEEEEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE

::continues giggling::

[lin-chan.livejournal.com]

You laugh because it's true...! Hehee

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

The Poads are cute but not $50 worth of cute.

For a desk mascot, I would buy another griffon (or maybe a jharicat) from Fantasypuppet.com and have them make it with a half-length cable rather than the full 4' one. (I already have three from them. :P)

For some reason, the Moonstone dragons have just never appealed to me.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Windstone, not moonstone.

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

Er, that's what I meant. It's 5AM. *whinge* (And was talking to person NAMED moonstone elsewindow.)

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

My current obsession (other than food, which is probably what I'd really buy with $50) is framing "found art" and sticking it on my wall. I'd spend a weekend at the hardware store and the paper store and throw together something that appeals to my abstract aesthetic.

[whippetluv.livejournal.com]

POAD!!! All the way baby!

[jilinn.livejournal.com]

I would definately go for the Poad since I already have the black and gold male dragon and am not looking for the other colors yet. Btw, I also found the hatchling and mother in black and gold. Got the hatchling, will be getting the mother soon. ^.^ And...the poads are just friggin cyute!

[asciiskull.livejournal.com]

...I had been under the impression that the $50 would cover the entire poad group. So yeah, a bit pricier that I'd thought when I chose it.

I'd like one painted like a yowah nut opal.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Windstones are unique among mass-produced fantasy figures in that they are not made in China, do not use underpaid third world labor, are not made by machine, and in fact are done entirely by hand in a "factory" in California, by moderately well-paid Americans under the direction of the original artist who designed them in the first place.

They're thusly expensive.

[asciiskull.livejournal.com]

I did not know what they are, or even that they were seperate peices instead of one larger sculpture.

I can certainly appreciate the value, but it would have affected my opinion.